Faith in Lilith Remix
by SilverCaladan
Summary: PRMF. Chip gets drawn in past the point of no return by Vida-or that which wears her face. Set during Stranger Within pt. II. Remix of a fic by Arrowned, with permission.


**Note**: So. This is a remix of Faith in Lilith, an MF fic by **Arrowned**.

I'm afraid I took the title of the fic quite a bit too literally, and as a consequence it's got a different feel to it than the original. Oops? Also I'm pretty sure I screwed with the episode canon some too. Bah, why should I listen to canon when it gets in the way of something much more interesting! Like the spelling of Chip's last name… really, it looks so much more genteel with an e on the end.

* * *

It was a much beleaguered and bewildered Chip Thorne who climbed the stairs to the rooftop terrace, almost dreading what he would find. The other Rangers had begged off hours ago, frustrated and scared (to the point of tears, in Maddie's case) at the complete lack of information on vampires in the library. Chip didn't give up, though. There just _had_ to be something overlooked; some life-saving bit of information missing.

He hadn't managed to get anything done, though. Just more of the same thing even Hollywood has known for years: garlic, sunlight, Catholic paraphernalia. Not one word on reversing the process, just warding off or hurting or _killing_, and this is _Vida_, there's got to be something else he can do!

And Chip thinks it's really off that a weirdly predictive magical library doesn't know anything new, anything else compared to Hollywood of all places. Most of the time, those assholes couldn't even be bothered to properly research the science in the fiction (purple glowing antimatter, anyone?) but they get the vampire thing right down to a T?

These thoughts don't sit well with Chip.

He didn't protest when they put Vida out on the rooftop, though, where she couldn't freak any of them out anymore than they already are, and can't just up and leave. She hasn't shown any indication of growing those gross buttwings Necrolai has yet, after all. Thank goodness the library had at least turned up decent tuned energy shield and night cloak spells that were easy to cast. Doubts or not, they couldn't take the chance Vida would get hurt.

The wind howls loudly and suddenly beyond the door to the treetop, sounding like an anguished scream. It startles Chip, and he almost, almost falls down the stairs, but catches himself at the last second on the door handle. He overcorrects, falls forward instead, and the door swings open into silence.

Ominous, suspenseful silence.

Vida's been waiting for someone to come and attend to her, plotting and waiting. She spent at least an hour throwing herself at the shield in an absolute rage at being contained. It was only as she moved from encompassing hurricane to quiet doldrum in the realization that she could not escape that she felt the wind responding likewise. She is emotion, and the wind is her, and oh god, the want and need and desire and the things she has no name for that are so different from what she was before… So she waits, and she plots, and she knows what she must do to escape, and be free.

It's pure fate that brings her Chip first.

"Knock knock," Chip declared his presence from the doorway, poking his head out cautiously. The night cloak spell seemed to suck all of the light out of even the lanterns, a very disconcerting effect when the place was lit but not at the same time. Guess they'd cast the spell too strong, or something. Or maybe the spell wasn't so much about blocking out the sun (thus "night") but blocking out the light. Damn misleading but poetic names.

Vida looked up from her position on a tree branch, casually stilling the rocking motion of her feet even as her eyes unerringly focused on Chip's. It's perfect, she thinks. He's scared and wanting and righteous, and it'll be easy to lead him right where she wants him. She knows him too well for his safety. "I see someone finally grew some balls and came to say hey."

Chip visibly started, not at the vulgarity but at the tone of her voice. Earlier, Vida hadn't even paused long enough in trying to bite everyone in her line of sight to quip or degrade. Chip had been expecting her to throw herself against the energy shield and try to claw at him. The coherency threw him off just as the scream of wind had earlier.

"Um, yeah. I, uh, wanted to see how you were, y'know, doing. Out here. At night. But not really night and I'll just shut up now."

Vida chuckled, a low, throaty sound that made Chip want to swallow compulsively. Good, she had him off-kilter enough that the first words out of his mouth were pure babble. Now to tug him in and keep him reeling. Vida knew, _knew_, she could get him to do anything she wanted, if only she could get him close enough. "That's fair enough. Come have a seat, keep me company. I've been alone out here all day."

"I don't think that's such a good idea!" burst out of his lips, in a general panicked tone. Chip's eyes darted wildly side to side, looking for an escape.

Here it was, he thought. She was trying to lure him closer to bite the fuck out of his neck. Tricky tricky, except she didn't seem animalistic crazed like she had earlier. Just sitting there, waiting and drinking him in with that stare and—

"Chip, stop being such a dork. We both know you have enough garlic in your pockets to feed a famine-struck Italy for a month." They think she's a vampire, but she's not, she knows. The spell was meant to make her a servile demon, but her wind was having none of that. She's something else… but they don't know that. Chip's always been an obsessed dork—albeit a hot one—of course he'd be wielding garlic or holy water or something since they know Necrolai did this to her. It's a calculated risk, guessing and teasing like that, and the wind almost spirals out of her control, trying to fight to bring him physically closer, but she can't have that. He's got to come of his own free will, lower the barrier by himself. He'd never do it under duress, because who she was a day ago would never have forced her best friend into anything. Chip's always been the hero, that way. He'd die before letting her out if he thought she was dangerous. He must _submit_. So she played the role.

Like Vida. That's how she seemed to him. Normal. She was ordering Chip around with the self-assurance she'd always had, and making fun of his dorkiness… and hey, there was no way she'd know about the garlic from all the way over there! Unless she really was a vampire and the garlic really was offensive to her, but then why would she be motioning him closer?

Ugh, too confusing! Chip gave into his instincts, which told him that this was okay, that _of course_ the righteous annoyance that had popped up at her words wasn't what had goaded him into doing this, and approached the barrier. He passed through the energy shield with only a static shock—which was somewhat relieving; it had supposedly been set up to grant everyone but Vida free passage, but their spellwork always went off when they were upset, and everyone was _majorly_ upset about Vida. It was a relief to not get turned into a pancake or anything. He didn't sit down though… it would put him too close. So he loitered behind her.

Vida rolled her eyes at him. She couldn't help it; he was so frustrating sometimes. Here she was doing her best to appear non-threatening and normal and _human_ and he didn't even have the decency to sit down next to his best friend. She had to up the stakes. That thought caused the wind to almost caress her body, merging her desires into one. Yes, she would have what she wanted… all of it.

There was a minute of creaking, tense silence as Vida started her feet gently swinging again, and mental thumb-twiddling as Chip tried to figure out how to both talk to and suppress his anxiety with whoever this was in front of him. He shivered as the wind seemed to curl around him, trying not to read too much into it. They were high-up, of course there'd be wind through the treetops.

"I'm okay," Vida stated, dispelling the silence with a suddenness that made Chip's eye twitch, and completely miss the words.

"Huh?"

She was lightly amused by how tense he was, with good reason perhaps, but she couldn't have that.

"You said earlier that you wanted to know how I was doing. I'm fine, thank you for asking." Vida huffed in mock annoyance, a sly look too fleeting to catch being replaced with a fond smile.

"Oh. But… you weren't fine earlier. What with the whole throwing yourself at people and stuff." Chip was royally confused, a whole boatload of nervous, and just a tad—damn his traitorous mind—hopeful. Maybe there was a way to fight this, if Vida could restrain herself like this.

Vida tugged on bark of the tree, nervously picking at the loose bits. Chip's eyes were drawn to her hands, and not watching her face. A good thing, too, as the sly look was back, and would have probably made Chip bolt out of sheer anxiety. Best to tell at least some of the truth here, those always made the best lies. Don't mention vampires, just… allude. "I'm getting better at resisting, I think. The spell was only meant to make a servant out of a normal human, not a mage. It made me freak out and blindly follow instinct, at first, but you know how much more powerful the magic's got to be to control one of us for long."

Chip nodded. He'd listened enough to Udonna when she was describing how utterly awesome being a Ranger made them to pick that up. Dragging his gaze from Vida's hands to her eyes, which showed nothing but smug nonchalance (he could tell by the crinkles of amusement around the corners of her eyes), then glancing away quickly, Chip spit out, "So now we just have to hunt the queen bitch down and—"

Oh, she couldn't have that. If they killed Necrolai and she didn't turn normal again, she'd be stuck up here _forever _and never get rid of all the churning desire. Best to… distract Chip from that line of thought.

His voice squeaked to an embarrassingly sudden stop as a warm and not unpleasant touch ran softly up his leg, over his jeans, behind his knee. Chip's higher order thought processes, usually so twitchy, go completely silent under the assault of the sensation, exactly as Vida had intended. The intimate touch is not something he's had the pleasure to experience before, she knows, and his eyes latch onto Vida's in near terror as he half collapses half sits next to her, too shocked to support himself. Her hand slides up his body to his back, running softly under his loose t-shirt.

She couldn't have planned his reaction better! The swirl of smug excitement at his reaction is too much to control, and the fire in her is fed by the wind that makes the leaves dance until she can't act anymore and has to look away for fear the game will be up. She hopes he takes it as demure embarrassment, an emotion she vaguely remembers existing at some point but can no longer feel beneath the maelstrom that is her need.

She's not looking at him, but at the door into Rootcore, her mind obviously a million miles away. The slight frown and unfocused gaze assuages Chip's panicked reaction somewhat, and he finds himself somewhat capable of speech again. "Vee." Oh, way too high-pitched. Chip clears his throat and tries again, his hands clamped like vises onto his knees. "Vee… what are you doing?"

Fingertips still trailing tingling fire up and down his spine, gaze unfocused, Vida doesn't bother to respond. Chip barely notices as his buried life-long crush on her and fear that he's being tricked battle for dominance. He breathes deeply, trying to center himself and figure out what to do like Udonna said all good warriors did, except it turns into something a lot more like hyperventilating, and he can feel what thought he'd regained disappear.

What if she's being controlled, what if this is just some brand new spanking manifestation of the vampirism. Dracula was all about seducing people at night, but that was usually in bed, and Anne Rice seemed pretty convinced vampires were sexual creatures and oh god what was she doing now!

He was thinking much too hard about all of the wrong things, whispered the wind in Vida's mind. The wandering fingers shift lower almost of their own accord, and toy with the waistband of his pants. Chip holds his breath instinctively, and it is into this sudden silence that Vida tranquilly asks, "Why is this whole thing so wrong, anyway?"

Fairly certain Vida was talking about the neck fixation issue and not the fact that her hands were encroaching upon places no one had touched since he was a baby, Chip sputtered in denial. However, he never got any farther than that, as another unexpected maneuver brought her well into his personal bubble and his eyes about bugged out of his head.

In a fluid movement straight out of a bad movie, Vida pivoted on the leg closest to Chip, simultaneously grabbing one of his hands off his thigh and settling her weight on his lap. His left hand ended up gripping her inner thigh, his right grasped in hers, and her damnable fingers still tracing the end of his spine. It was exactly where she wanted to be; in his personal bubble, and oh god the way he smelled, of iron and ozone. She felt the first urge to take him, to make him like her, not to just use him to get free and leave him confused and spent, but to corrupt him and keep him. Ooooh it would be so sweet, tinkled the branches.

Insides burning, blood churning, Chip managed to blurt out "Vida, don't do this!" Naturally, as she always tended to do with his commands, vampire moods or not, she ignored him. So did his body, as his pants became more constricting.

"I'm serious, Chip." She continued as she laid her head on his shoulder, leaning into his chest and nuzzling the skin behind his ear, breath hot enough to send pleasurable shivers racing. She eyed the rising bulge in his pants with a naked desire that he could not see, and probably would not have even recognized.

Chip was so out of his depth here he didn't even know how to begin to resist or escape, and worse, it felt _good_; like the first time he shot lightning, all tingle and heat and char. "I can deal with all of this; there's not anything really bad. Just… different," Vida breathed.

The mental overload combined with the hyperventilation broke the dam between his mind and his tongue, and Chip yelped. "You're _seducing_ me and that's just 'different'? God, Vida, you're… you're not Vida anymore! You're a fucking vampire, that's what's wrong!" He tried to stand up, to dump her off his lap, but she was a rock-solid weight and he didn't have much leverage.

He doesn't notice the wind that kept him in place with a frustrated howl. She could hear the blood rushing through his ears, blocking out everything but her and her voice. That's good, because she's afraid she won't be able to keep control for much longer, and he's not hooked.

"That's not true." She calmly pressed his captive hand to her breast, which was warm and full and oh god he's always wondered what breasts feel like, whether it was more like a balloon or a melon and oh god he's touching her breast. "Would a vampire be so warm? I'm still me, just… more."

The need was always there, the curling, burning warmth, but he's ratcheted the game higher. His smell and taste tingle on her lips and she wants more, ever so desperately. His hands on her ring like thunder through her system.

Angrily, feeling like everything about himself is being invaded but unable to rip his hand away, and so, so confused at the conflicting information, Chip strangles out, "The old Vida wouldn't be five seconds away from ripping my clothes off for no goddamn reason."

A low chuckle at his expense, and Vida leans in to flutter light kisses down the curve of his neck. "The old Vida didn't know what she was missing when she didn't listen to her base desires." The fluttering moves to wet sucking—oh god she can only imagine what all that blood thumping just centimeters away taste like—and Chip's heart skips a couple of beats, both at the words he's always wanted to hear and at the thought that she'd bite down. "And you know what? Her base desires want you."

Clutching desperately to the fading anger like a dissipating storm tries to loom, Chip rallies again. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Vida starts rocking her weight back and forth on his lap, causing his hand on her thigh to inch closer and closer to her abdomen and into further warmth. The movement feels like torture to an already strained Chip, and closer and closer to bliss for a wanton Vida. She understands his words through a haze of want and desire and she has totally lost her cool, but who cares because the wind is blowing and she speaks with it and knows…

He has to really concentrate to hear her clipped words through the blood and the wind. "Something older than time. Something full of wind and demon and blood and _want_ and _need_."

And he hears it, hears the wind continuing to rush around them—caressing, driving. Even the blood rushing just beneath the surface of his skin so wildly, pooling in a mess of neediness. And Chip hasn't been obsessed with comics and tabletop gaming for years to just ignore the realization of what's going on, of what Vida is now. Of how he can't stop reacting to her, and she to him…

He doesn't notice he's crying until Vida licks his tears.

"… why the hell are you crying?" She asks, honestly confused. She doesn't understand why he's reacting this way. There's nothing that should inspire sorrow, just burn and give, breeze and spark and them, together, now. Vida thinks this might be a humanity thing, something that seems farther and farther away the more the air whispers and pleasure builds.

"Damnit, I don't know." He sobbed quietly, once, twice , trying to get his emotions under control. He was utterly embarrassed; he hadn't cried in over a decade since he broke his arm falling out of a tree. Chip wanted to lie and claim it was the garlic in his pockets, but garlic isn't like onions and doesn't make people cry. The thought of the ineffectual garlic only solidified the half formed theory of what the magic had sown.

Vida slowly kisses both of his eyelids, kissing away the tears, never stopping her rocking motion. Never stopping the pace towards its inevitable climax.

He supposed it was meant to comfort, if she was capable of it, or maybe distract. It did both. He wanted her, she wanted him; it was only a thin thread of doubt that held him back, that kept him here on Earth with his humanity and his morals. If only he could have time to _think_…

"Demon, Vee. Evil doesn't protect the planet." He grasped at straws, desperate to deflect emotion with logic.

"Who said I'm evil? Impetuous, instinct-driven, blood-thirsty…sure. I choose what I want to do; I'm not soulless or unfeeling." She gazes into his eyes, letting the wild gale of passion and want and violence speak for her, holding herself still to demonstrate that she is capable of more… human… traits than take take take. She'll wait for him to come to her, wait for him to give into her, wait for him to decide that his humanity isn't worth what she can give him. The moment lingers…

His hand begins to slowly, cautiously, knead her chest, and almost against his will his thumb begins tracing the crease between her hip and her thigh. He laughs, a desperate, breaking sound, and gives in. Gives up. Totally. "And turning others? What about that?"

Vida leaned in close and breathed "I'd love to, but you'd have a better idea if I could or not." She closed the final inch of space, kissing him thoroughly. The gentle warmth of her slightly moving lips and the fireworks that went off in his brain left him gasping and wanting. The wind picks up again, dancing from place to place and ruffling his hair.

He laughed, but not broken this time. It was resigned, traveling down the road to something new and terrifying instead, not sure if it'd be better, but traveling all the same. He breathes out, softly, almost vacantly, "Lilith the wind demon had a male counterpart, a storm incubi."

Vida kissed him again, thrilling in his submission, insistent and demanding. So that's what the taste she got out of him was! This would work after all, and she could not wait to get started. "Lightning fits the bill perfectly."

She reached between them and unbuttoned his jeans deftly, rubbing lightly over the freed boxers. It felt amazing and wonderful and oh god he never wanted to stop. But… "Will it hurt?"

Planting her lips over his jugular, sucking lightly, she never stopped stroking. "Everything worthwhile does, Chip." He felt an unbearable pressure building, building, the more she stroked and nibbled at his neck. This was it, it was happening.

He didn't reply audibly. Just tilted his head sideways, giving Vida better access to the vein. As the painful fire of her vicious bite and the demanding fire in his groin built and built so close to the end, all his nerves firing wild shocks, his entire being changing, he let loose a prayer: "Oh, God…"

Which one, he didn't know.

* * *

**Footnotes**: The purple glowing antimatter is a reference to the movie Angels & Demons, which was originally a book by Dan Brown, and owns much of my hatred.

Lilith is proceeded by multiple Mesopotamian wind demons/succubi who seduced men and fed on their blood (quite apart from the baby-killing). This would be something Chip would know, as they appear in fantasy games quite a bit under the names Lamia or Lamashtu. I've posited that demons/succubi have little of the thought processes of humans, just emotion and desire and a supreme control to get what they want. They feed on it, and so it makes sense that they would _be_ it. No halfsies or confusion or morals here.

Lilith herself is kind of a corollary/predecessor to vampires… which are totally overplayed. And thus replaced. :3


End file.
